I started out with a bone colored Yellow Magic Popper (found at Basspro.com) and Josh was tossing a Parch colored Sammy.  We both were catching fish and some keepers.  I threw back 5 keepers and Josh threw back 2 or 3 before we even put one in the well.  Torturous decisions that no cull tournaments present.  I finally switched to a bone colored Barely Legal Vixen and that put a nice largemouth in the boat, kind of a bonus fish here.  Josh ended up boating two nice smallies on his Sammy.  I also added a quality smallie on a mojo’d Fork Craw and then one more nice smallie on the Vixen before we left that spot.

We then started working our way up Pepin further north, I switched to a 3/8oz Fall Craw Tru-Tungsten jig, as we were targeting isolated wood and structure.  I caught two keepers pretty quick, one was a nice largemouth and he went in the well, I decided to throw the other back.  We then moved up a little farther and I caught a 16″ smallie.  I made the decision to throw her back as well, as I really wanted a 3lb plus fish because I wanted to make a run for first place in the club.

We fished up to Colvill park, came back to our starting point, fished it for awhile, we missed a few and caught some shorts.  With a bout 90 minutes left we ran all the way back to Wabasha to fish some backwater.  We did not have much time back there as it was rougher on the way back down the lake.  We each missed a few fish or they missed us on Frogs, we each caught a norther and then Josh connected on a 3.8lb toad on his frog.  We high tailed it back to Ike’s and Josh caught his 4th keeper on a small finesse jewel jig right at the mouth of Ikes to give him 4 and I told him you beat me on the last cast.

We weighed in, most guys struggled, no limits, although myself, Josh & John A. all had 4 and we all threw back keepers.  But in the end my dad caught only two fish and Dave H. caught only 1 and I passed them both for the year, which makes me AOY Champ back to back years.  It was also the last day of Match fishing and I beat out Ryan for the Championship.  I weighed 4 fish for 10.3lbs, Josh weighed 4 for 10.5…..

Tomorrow, I am captaining some Jr. anglers on Bald Eagle Lake and Sunday I am headed back to the river for some more practice

My first cast with a junebug swim jig got me a 14.5″ fish that I threw back because it was a ‘no cull’ tournament.  I then started throwing a bone colored Yellow Magic popper (I get mine from Basspro.com), caught some short fish then caught a 3.3lb largemouth.  I continued throwing that popper for the next hour and caught 10+ fish, none of which I actually put in the well.  I then switched to 1/2 oz Fall Craw Tru-Tungsten jig with Black Neon chunk and boated a nice keeper.  Rick then also boated a nice fish on a jig.  I then switched up and started flipping a Green Pumpkin Chigger Craw right up into the grass & brush on the undercut banks.  My flippin’ setup consisted of 50lb braid, 3/4oz Tru-Tungsten flippin’ weight and a 3/0 BMF hook tied up with a snell knot.  I caught several fish with this technique, two keepers, but both of them went back in the water.

I then went back to the jig and boated another nice largemouth for the well.  At the same time Ricky started building a nice limit on a Green Pumpkin Fork Craw on a mojo rig, he even threw back a 15″+ smallie and then caught another nice largemouth before I got my limit.  Finally at 1:30pm, I threw my Fork Craw on a mojo rig up next to a weed clump and boated a 2.8lb smallie.  That fish rounded out a nice limit of 14.0lbs, which I felt very good about in a no cull tournament.  Until weigh-in, when I ended up 4th out of 13 guys.  Several guys had 4lbs+ fish, I guess never got that big bite I needed.  Well it was time to dry off, retie my rods and get ready for Sunday on Pool 5.  I made up a bunch of ground on the guy in first, but the guy in 2nd beat me and now he is the new leader to chase.  I came in about 9lbs out of first, now I sit about 4lbs back, still in 3rd.

I got back to the pads and I started tossing a floating frog, about 15 minutes later I had a 4.5lb bass in the boat, shortly after that Rick had one just as big on a white cane toad and then a little later I had a big one miss my swim jig.  I was pretty excited with the quality, but it was not fast and furious by any means.  We spent a few hours trying to find similar water and I only caught one small keeper in the other areas.

We checked a few other areas later, I caught several fish Flipping plastics on a snell rig, with a 3/4oz Tru-Tungsten flippin’ weightand a 3/0 BMF hook.  Actual plastic did not seem to matter, caught them on Yum Vibra King Tubes, Gambler Ugly Otters, and few other things.  I did catch one more decent fish out of some duck weed closer to the main channel, then we had to go.

Overall, did not find anything but I have a lot of confidence in two areas.  I am torn, because one area is really good and had quality fish, the other has big fish but numbers are few.  Because its a ‘no cull’ tourney, I think we will run to the big fish first, give them 30-45 minutes, if its not happening we will come back to the other spot & try to fill the wells. 

On Sunday, we fish Pool 4, I have not been there since July 21, about a month, so I hope my fish on the top of Pepin are still there and the wind does not blow too hard, otherwise I have some back up slop on the WI side of Wabasha.  I am excited about this weekend.   Also, welcome email subscriber # 43!! 

I decided to fish some reeds that I thought would produce a solid 10-12lbs, but I ended up wasting over an hour fishing reeds, we each had a couple fish in the well when we left, but nothing special.  The first weedline that I pulled up on, we had a near double and I soon caught a nice smallie and largemouth on a drop shot with a little 4″ Chompers worm in a watermelon flake color paired with a 1/4oz Tru-Tungsten drop shot weight and a drop length of about 16″.  A northern bit of my drop shot weight so I switched to my finesse carolina rig (a.k.a. Mojo Rig) which was sporting 1/8oz Tru-Tungsten bullet sinker pegged about 20″ up from a Green Pumpkin Fork Craw.  Within the first 5 casts I whacked my 3.94lb smallmouth, I continued to fish with that and filled out a nice limit of fish.  I mixed in some docks as well and caught one of my nicer largemouth on a 1/4 oz Green Pumpkin/Brown Tru-Tungsten jig.
 
We hopped docks and weedlines the rest of the day, the docks did not produce any more good fish, I had one decent one on and he jumped, but it was marginal in whether I would have culled with him.  I culled a few more times deep with the Fork Craw and my partner finally put on the Fork Craw with about 90 minutes left and he culled his entire well with two nice smallies and a largemouth.  His 3 fish total was 9.86 with a 4.59 smallie which put him in 5th.  I also lost another good smallie that leaped next to the boat where he caught the 4.59, that is the nature of smallmouth bass fishing though.  My total ended up being 15.99lbs and that was good enough for 12th place.  The positive news is that I moved from 8th to 5th in the point standings, which is keeping me on pace to qualify for Nationals on Clarks Hill reservoir in November.

I think the biggest mistake that I made was starting in the reeds, had I started deep, I think I would have had a little better bag, maybe moved up in to the middle of the Top 10….   I need to quit playing it safe sometimes, live and learn.   Also of note, my dad took 4th as a non-boater with just over 10lbs and had moved to 6th in his point standings.  I hope to have some pictures to post here later as well.  On to the river for the next few tournaments and the State TOC on Leech is just around the corner as well.